Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 254

Cherry Saturday 5-16-2015

It’s National Sea Monkeys Day.

Basically, we’ll give anything a day. Mothers, independence, brine shrimp, we’ll celebrate it.

I think that’s a good thing. I think.

Cherry Saturday 5 – 9 – 2015

Today is Lost Sock Memorial Day.

Which is a day to remember lost socks, but if you could remember where you left them, they wouldn’t be lost, so . . .

Cherry Saturday 5- 2 – 2015

Today is Krissie’s Birthday!

We’re going to Kathy’s for breakfast where we’re going to discuss our books in progress and the possibility of restarting ReFab, now that we’re not suicidal any more. (Krissie’s winter was much worse than mine; mine was much worse that I realized at the time, we’re both fine now or at least not dead yet.) Also I’m having pancakes.

So what’s new with you?

Amy Schumer Is Fabulous. Twice.

I tried watching Amy Schumer’s show once and it was just too . . . I don’t know, it felt like she was trying too hard. But one of her skits just went viral, and it’s so, so good, and a new one just dropped that’s an extremely catchy music video, and now I am officially an Amy Schumer fangirl.

The music video is “Girl, You Don’t Need Make-Up,” a great send-up of the “She doesn’t know she’s beautiful” song that’s always made me crazy, and the viral skit is Josh Charles as a anti-rape football coach in “Football Town Nights.” Just as the bit starts to get old, Charles comes through with an impassioned speech at the end that pretty much nails the whole high school rape debate. (I also love all the arguments people give him on his policy since they pretty much echo the cluelessness of the bottom of the internet). Also check out, Last Fuckable Day, an equally good discussion of the shelf life of actresses in particular and women in general.

Anybody who says humor isn’t a weapon for change hasn’t met Amy Schumer.

(Also apologies for missing Cherry Saturday; by the time I realized I’d missed Saturday, it was Monday. Yes, I will do better.)

Stuff

I have too much stuff.

Part of this is because I moved from a 4000 sq ft house to a 1000 sq ft house. I left behind a tremendous square footage of stuff (just ask Lani and Alastair), but I still brought a lot of stuff with me. Since then (two years ago), I have given away even more square footage of stuff, and I still have too much. In not unrelated news, I have too much stuff in the stories I’m working on, but it’s hard to clear them out because I have too many stories I’m working on. At one point I thought I might be a hoarder (of stuff and stories), but Krissie pointed out that I give stuff away all the time without hesitation. Evidently hoarders don’t do that. But still, I have Stuff, and I’ve been thinking about how to deal with it all.

The first realization I came to was that the fact that I have great stuff doesn’t mean I have to keep it. I have gorgeous plates and bowls, but I have a million of them. So I put the ones I use on the shelves and the rest in a box for Krissie to take with her, probably to Goodwill (still haven’t found a Goodwill that’s close by here). I also have eight stories started (You Again, Lavender’s Blue, Haunting Alice, Stealing Nadine, Ghost of a Chance, Cold Hearts, Paradise Park, Monday Street), and a couple of others that are so old it’s like reading somebody else’s book, stories that I loved once and am now trying to find my way back to. I’m think they’re like the plates, though, and some of them need to go to the Fiction Goodwill (aka the trash). The pressure of them sitting in Dropbox is weighing me down, which makes me depressed, which leads me to buy more yarn. (Note to Self: Do not buy any more yarn. Unless it’s really, really good.)

The second break through came when I realized that a lot of my clutter problem is because I bought a house with no closets and no cabinets. The only storage this house had was a triangular shaped closet under the stairs in the guest room, two really small closets in the dining room and back bedroom that had to go in the gut job, and a flimsy china cabinet in the tiny pantry that also had to go (old and a little rotted). My kitchen problems pretty much disappeared when I built the pantry wall and the open shelving in the kitchen proper and then got rid of everything I couldn’t fit there, so I’m thinking that’s the best approach. My yarn problem (Hi, I’m Jenny and I’m a yarn addict), vastly improved when I redesigned the living room to be a studio with really nice chairs and a TV instead of a living room, and my tiny bedroom’s linen problem was solved when I built shelves along the ceiling that hold boxes for sheets and folded quilts. Once the shelves were filled, I started tossing. If I don’t have room to store it and/or I never use it, it goes.

I’m not sure how to translate that into clearing up my fiction overload. It’s easy to get rid of worn sheets or yarn that I have no use for, but stories are different, they’re full of people, and walking away means you’re killing off characters. I started a story called Charlotte (working title) about fifteen years ago and I still have the file in Dropbox. I’m afraid to open it because I’m afraid Charlotte will still be alive in there. I’m pretty sure she’s turned to dust, but I’ve thought that about other stories until I read their beginnings again and thought, “I can’t abandon this character, she needs me.” I’ve also thought about just turning them all into novellas; save the character, save my Fiction Folder. But stories tend to be what they want to be, deciding on their own length, and while you can clean them out, rewrite to get rid of the worn parts and the stuff the story really has no use for, in the end, they’re gonna be what they’re gonna be. It’s a problem.

The big takeaway from all of this, though, is to get rid of Stuff. Finish it, delete it, give it away, whatever, but get rid of everything that isn’t useful or beautiful (except Wolfie) so that I can live a cleaner, easier physical and creative life.

Stuff. I need it, but not this much of it.

Cherry Saturday 4-18-2015

Today is International Juggler’s Day.

Considering how much multi-tasking Argh People do, I consider this Our Day.

Random Catching Up and Shallow Thoughts Post

I’ve been distracted.

Winter did a number on me. It wasn’t just the lack of heat (now solved and glorious). I still find myself checking the weather to see if I can go out. It’s spring, for heaven’s sake, I’m not snowed in, I won’t get caught by a blizzard, there’s no ice out there. And yet, I am still a slave to Forecast and Wunderground. I look at the charts and think, OMG RAIN! and then remember that it’s just water and not Meteorology Trying To Kill Me. Which reminds me, if you’re not reading The Vane, you’re missing out. I’m not a weather geek, and it’s one of my favorite blogs. Dennis Mersereau is the Jim Cantore of the internet.

Toni and I have hit a wall on Monday Street. Actually, it’s more like the wall hit us. All this Stuff knocked us off our stride, and we’re trying to get back on track because we both love the book, but our individual Stuff continues to impede. Plus I have five other books started. So it’s time to get back on the horse computer story again. To that end I am cleaning up the pit that became my office over the winter. This time it’s so bad, I’m not even showing before pictures. I have some pride.

One of my dogs is dying, although he doesn’t seem to realize it. He’s deaf and blind in one eye with cataracts in the other; he has arthritis in his spine, a tumor on his leg, and a heart murmur, and he’s losing weight. I have a firm rule that I do not keep an animal alive if he or she is suffering, but Wolfie still trots outside with enthusiasm, jumps up and down for treats, barks at what annoys him, eats and drinks with gusto, and demands to snuggle whenever possible. He doesn’t seem to be in distress except when he walks into a corner and can’t find his way out again. He is definitely Dead Dog Walking, but since he seems happy, I can’t do the Last Vet Visit with him. There was one weekend when I thought, “On Monday, this is it,” but then on Monday, he rallied. He’s at the bottom of my bed as I type this, blinking out at the afternoon light, peaceful and happy. The clock is ticking in the office, and it ticks for him, but for right now, we’re good.

One of my oh-god-it’s-not-winter-any-more realizations (NOT resolutions) was that it’s time to stop trying to figure out where to put all this stuff and either put it or pitch it. I’d order two storage units on sale at Plow and Hearth, and then they came and they were terrible, cheap and wobbly, so I got some wood from the garage and reinforced them so I could put the TV on top of them (had to move the TV off the wall when the new heat went in), and then it was too low for the TV so I had to build another shelf unit on top of that, and then I realized that I needed to put doors over the TV which means building storage on both sides of it . . . so I’m in the middle of building a TV cabinet. Plus side: I can finally store a lot more of my yarn. Downside: My living room continues to be decorated in Yarn. Which is okay. I like yarn. I could use a lot less of it, but that just means I have to crochet faster.

Which I have been doing all winter. I don’t like taking anti-anxiety drugs, but I do get tense, so I watch TV while crocheting like a madwoman and that calms me down. It also means the crocheted stuff is stacking up. I’ve moved on to short cardigans to wear over sundresses, so that helps. Also monsters for the kids. And I’ve caught up on some excellent TV. If you haven’t seen Daredevil yet, hie thee to thy TV set, it’s fantastic. It’s also violent–their blood budget must have been huge–but it’s the best storytelling I’ve seen in a long time. Also terrific cast, no exceptions.

I’m also still trying things out with the writing book. And working on my sugar free cookies recipes. And making lists of people to call to fix the disaster that is the front of my house. Also clearing out the garage. And getting back into fiction. And corralling the pack for their rabies shots. And . . .

I just need to get organized.

So how’s by you? Spring inspiring any plans, changes, reboots, revisions? I can’t be the only one: tell all.

Cherry Saturday 4-11-15

Today is Pet Day. If you don’t have one, get one. If you have one, show it some love. (You get to define “pet.”)

It’s also Submarine Day, which I mention because of this:

(And now you’ll have that ear worm all day. You’re welcome.)

Continuing My Series of Ineptedness

I was working on a post last night and accidentally hit “Publish.” Then I hit “Draft” again, but I think it might have gone out on the RSS feed. If so, just delete it. I hadn’t even started to cut it yet, so it’s a rambling mess, much like the rest of my life lately. ARGH.

Cherry Saturday 1-4-2015

Happy Day-Before-Easter because this cartoon never gets old: